So the trouble with not waiting a good year or so before returning for a show is that fewer people will make it a prerogative to purchase tickets. The crowd was pretty non-existent for the opener, Lethal Strike and grew only a smidgen for Warbringer. In fact, I had a lingering suspicion that Lethal Strike brought all their friends down. This was only confirmed when three guys started freaking out all over the floor trying to start a mosh pit, and even a circle pit—though that mostly meant that they just chased each other until they got tired.

Both Lethal Strike and Warbringer looked ecstatic to be onstage. Although the former is only now recording a demo while the latter put out an album in 2007, both bands were mugging for the crowd and drinking in the energy while being amazing clichés. Things like “We will tear you all down with a… LETHAL STRIKE” were uttered onstage. It was also explained to us that humanity sucks and we will all eventually feed upon ourselves. I assume Warbringer expects a Zombie Holocaust, although none of their lyrics confirmed this. The bands didn’t sound particularly novel, but weren’t bad either.

At 9 both openers were finished and we prepared ourselves for a two-hour set of Finntroll, since that’s what they delivered last time. They finally came out at about 9:45, not really strutting, just sort of wandering out on stage and launched into Kitteldags off of the Jacktens Tid album. The crowd was already kind of worked up due to the three guys mentioned previously who felt that people weren’t giving their all to the pit. My thoughts on this are, you can’t tell me to move, I will move when the music makes me. This time though no amount of music was going to make me do a thing because I recently sprained my ankle and gored my hand and so stayed away from belligerence.

The crowd swelled to twice its former size (although that doesn’t say too much) and Finntroll fixed the pit issue, the climax of which was during the performance of Trollhammaren. It’s a different kind of experience—moshing to Finntroll. I don’t remember so many people being so happy and generally safe in a pit before. Folks jigged, of course, they hugged, they danced, and they jumped around.

There was a total of one crowd surfer, but he didn’t make it far (side note: while a bouncer was hitting on me before the show, he explained that the best way to crowd surf is with your feet to the stage, otherwise you’re just asking to get hurt. The lone crowdsurfer didn’t know that. He also told me the reason B.B. King’s discourages moshing and crowd surfing: a 14-year-old kid got his arm broken in a pit and his parents sued for $4 mil. There is no end of things I want to say to people like that).

Finntroll’s play list is always well balanced, representing all of their albums equally. The only unfortunate difference between this set and their previous one was the length. It seemed like this show was over before it even began. On the bright side, all of their best songs were played and there was still room for some traditional Finnish folk music just before the encore.

But back to the pit: the guys who have been trying to rile up the crowd, screaming, calling people out, were still mostly in full force if no longer necessary. A huge guy ran straight at me, screaming and grinning, only to fall away after a gentle shove. Even though I was on the sidelines, that got me into the spirit of things and I wiggled around a bit. I hated my ankle with all my heart as I was mostly relegated to watching other people have fun not a foot away from me. That’s the way to do it at a Finntroll show. Get your jig on! There are so few other places.